WILDOMAR: Martha Bridges accepts city's path

Former incorporation opponent runs for a second time

Editor's note: This is the third in a series focusing on six
candidates seeking three seats on the Wildomar City Council. The
election is Nov. 2.

Martha Bridges opposed Wildomar becoming a city when voters were
asked to decide the question in February 2008.

Nevertheless, she ran for a City Council spot on the premise
that, if cityhood were approved, she could provide a contrasting
perspective and veteran business experience.

Although she finished eighth in the race for five council seats,
she is not letting that result deter her in once again undertaking
the challenge by running for one of three council seats on the Nov.
2 ballot.

Her anti-incorporation stance in 2008, she said, was
misunderstood.

"I didn't think it was the right time for cityhood," she said.
"The fact of the matter is we have cityhood. There's no going back.
It's going to take some hard work to make it work."

She believes her pre-cityhood criticisms have proven accurate,
given the city's fiscal vulnerability.

"All the concerns I brought up ... have pretty much been
validated. I expressed my concerns about the real estate bubble
about to burst."

A 23-year Wildomar resident, Bridges, 67, retired from a career
in the business world, including a long stint in fiscal management
with Kaiser Permanente. She is active as a volunteer in several
nonprofits, including the Butterfield Trails Committee of which she
is president.

"This is a magical, wonderful time of my life," she said. "I
have my health and a lot of energy. It's my time to be fully
involved in the community."

Among the six candidates on Nov. 2, Bridges is the only
unsuccessful candidate in 2008 to run again. The other candidates
are incumbents Marsha Swanson and Sheryl Ade, and challengers Ben
Benoit, a business owner; Kristan Lloyd, a community volunteer; and
Tim Walker, a business owner.

The City Council oversees a government providing services to
about 32,000 residents. With just three full-time employees, the
city depends heavily on part-time contracted help and is
functioning this year on an $11.2 million budget. Council members
earn $300 per meeting, plus health and life insurance benefits.

While the economy has hammered the city's budget, Bridges
maintains Wildomar has enough to survive.

"I believe we're spending money on nonessential things," she
said. "I think we need to look at all the budget items to see if
they need to be cut or postponed."

Bridges said she would serve the city without accepting benefits
and would seek a five-year moratorium on council benefits, which
she contends are unnecessary.

She said the city is paying too much for contracted services
because those agreements were forged before the full impacts of the
recession.

Through budget trimming, she believes money would be available
to keep the city's three parks open after a court decision striking
down a voter-approved $28 per parcel annual assessment that funds
park maintenance.

She said park proponents were warned the assessment wouldn't fly
legally.

"They pushed ahead and ignored the objections, knowing it was
legally flawed," she said. "That's no way to get something
done."

Yet Bridges said she is not opposed to a parks assessment in
concept.

"I want to make it perfectly clear I voted for the assessment
and paid for it because I believe we need parks and more parks,"
she said.

The lawsuit was brought by Wildomar resident Steven Beutz, who
was allied with Bridges as an anti-incorporation candidate in the
2008 campaign. The suit and another one aimed at the county's
funding assistance for incorporation have engendered bitter
feelings among cityhood and park proponents.

"One of the things I think is wrong in Wildomar is there's too
much finger-pointing, too much worrying about what someone said
years ago," Bridges said. "What we need is to walk positively
forward, instead of backward. If Wildomar is going to succeed, we
need to get along and work together."

She said the city needs to encourage responsible commercial
development, while ensuring the environment is protected.

"I'm very much an environmentalist," she said. "We need to be
stewards of the earth and pass the wonders of our natural resources
on to future generations."